In the treatment of a decayed tooth, there has been conventionally carried out a treatment method of ablating a carries portion of an enamel or dentin and burying a metal, a resin or the like in the portion. In this bout, the dental pulp is occasionally exposed at a portion which the dentin was removed.
In this case, when the dental pulp portion is directly covered with a metal or a resin, microbes enter into a gap between the dental pulp and the metal or the resin to cause inflammation since an adhesive force between the dental pulp and the metal or the resin may be insufficient, and pain is also occasionally felt against slight stimulation. Therefore, it is desirable that the dental pulp is capped with regenerated dentin.
In the treatment of a decayed tooth, there has been conventionally carried out a treatment method of ablating an caries portion of an enamel or dentin and burying a metal, a resin or the like in the portion. In this bout, the dental pulp is occasionally exposed at a portion which the dentin was removed.
In this case, when the dental pulp portion is directly covered with a metal or a resin, microbes enters into a gap between the dental pulp and the metal or the resin to cause inflammation since an adhesive force between the dental pulp and the metal or the resin may be insufficient, and pain is also occasionally felt against slight stimulation. Therefore, it is desirable that the dental pulp is capped with regenerated dentin.
As the regenerating method of the dentin, a calcium hydroxide preparation is occasionally used as a pulp-capping agent for the exposed dental pulp. However, a necrotic layer by strong alkali is generated on the dental pulp face which is brought in contact with calcium hydroxide, and even if the dentin is occasionally regenerated at its lower portion, its regenerating rate is considered to be very low. Additionally, since the dental pulp backs downward often by the necrosis, it is not preferable.
Recently, various investigations for studying an effective component as a pulp-capping agent for treatment of promoting the regeneration of the dentin in place of the calcium hydroxide preparation have been carried out. For example, there are proposed a pulp-capping agent containing polysaccharides such as N-acetyl-D-glucoseamine in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-256132, a dentin forming pulp-capping agent containing bone morphogenetic protein as an effective component in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-340555 and a secondary dentin forming promoter containing the blood extract of a cow in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-363084. However, the regeneration effect of the dentin can be expected to a certain degree by the pulp-capping agents and promoters described in these patent references, but it cannot be said that sufficient study is carried out for a foothold of regeneration which is important at regenerating, namely, for the foothold of cells having ability of regenerating the dentin. One factor for insufficient regeneration effect is considered that the foothold for proliferating cells having ability of regenerating the dentin to promote regeneration of the dentin excellently is not adequately secured.
Further, it is said that the dental pulp portion is preferably subjected to primer treatment and, then, is covered with a pulp-capping agent. As the dental primer, a primer containing specific particles is proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-175921. However, since the dental primer described in the patent reference contains polymerizable monomers containing an acid group such as a phosphoric acid group, a carboxylic acid group, a sulfonic acid group or a phosphonic acid group, the regeneration ability of the dentin could not be expected.